"Right now they are writing the story for us. We need to write the story for ourselves," Jay Z told a secret gathering of top tier artists dubbed "The Avengers of Music" during Grammy week in February. Today he began to make good on his promise with the relaunch of TIDAL, the European based streaming music service that he just purchased for $56 million.
While short on details, today's TIDAL launch put artists front and center. Kanye West, Madonna, Nicki Minaj. Beyonce, Alicia Keys, Rihanna, Usher, Dead Mouse, Daft Punk, J Cole, Calvin Harris and Jay Z himself all strolled onto the stage in New York City signing a joint "declaration" marking the relaunch of the music streaming service.
An Artist Owned Streaming Music Service
Beyond the exclusives, TIDAL looks and feels much like other Spotify and other streaming music services. It does offer video and hi-def playback for $19.99 monthly, in addition to the standard $9.99 tier. And comments during the introduction and by Keys hint at enhanced offline playback and other technical enhancements.
It remains to be seen if that plus some serious star power is enough to make TIDAL a hit.
The Critics
Jay Z's plan already has its critics. Just as the launch announcement began, two hashtags were trending on Twitter: #TidalForALL promoted by Jay Z and TIDAL and #TIDALforNONE, spontaneously created by his doubters.
Some are questioning creating a service that will further line the pockets of already hugely successful artists. "Multimillionaires coming together to bring awareness to a major cause! Their bank accounts." tweeted @nickkpisano.
Cast Your Vote
We'll have full analysis tomorrow morning, but in the meantime. Cast your vote: What do you think of Jay Z's streaming music service TIDAL?
